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The url should be changed to: https://rwer.wordpress.com/2018/03/06/if-poor-people-knew-how-rich-rich-people-are-there-would-be-riots-in-the-streets/ https://rw

by Buetol 9y ago

The url should be changed to: https://rwer.wordpress.com/2018/03/06/if-poor-people-knew-how-rich-rich-people-are-there-would-be-riots-in-the-streets/ https://rwer.wordpress.com/2018/03/06/if-poor-people-knew-ho... Also, like Piketty said in his book, this trend could be inversed and stabilized if we had more taxes on capital, that's literally the solution to world hunger / education / healthcare.

sctb 9y ago
Thanks, we've updated the link from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/econ-professor-says-experts-are-wrong-on-inequality-its-actually-much-worse-2018-03-06 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/econ-professor-says-expert..., which points to this.
forapurpose 9y ago
Could you provide some detail about what Piketty said?
- burke 9y ago
  This is, I'm sure, butchering the details to some degree or another, but in brief: Piketty's primary thesis is that as the rate of return on capital grows, so too does inequality between holders of capital and the lower classes. The rate of return on capital has been increasing steadily since the start of the industrial revolution. In order to reduce inequality without abolishing our entire system of economy and government, the most obvious lever is to reduce the rate of return on capital. The most obvious way to do that is to tax it.
  - adamchalmers 9y ago
    Specifically, he calls for a global tax on all capital, regardless of whether it's real estate, financial assets, homes, bonds, bank accounts. That way people can't get around it by shifting their assets overseas or into different forms. Obviously this would be difficult to implement, but it can be done by individual states, then countries, then by groups like the EU, etc.
    - WkndTriathlete 9y ago
      I think this is impossible to implement without a significant fraction of the G-8 or G-20 countries electing technocrats to office. Right now I'm envisioning Merkel and Macron asking themselves what on earth is happening in the rest of the West, especially in the wake of the election results in Italy over the past couple of days.

by Buetol 9y ago

sctb 9y ago

Thanks, we've updated the link from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/econ-professor-says-experts-are-wrong-on-inequality-its-actually-much-worse-2018-03-06 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/econ-professor-says-expert..., which points to this.

forapurpose 9y ago

Could you provide some detail about what Piketty said?

burke 9y ago
This is, I'm sure, butchering the details to some degree or another, but in brief: Piketty's primary thesis is that as the rate of return on capital grows, so too does inequality between holders of capital and the lower classes. The rate of return on capital has been increasing steadily since the start of the industrial revolution. In order to reduce inequality without abolishing our entire system of economy and government, the most obvious lever is to reduce the rate of return on capital. The most obvious way to do that is to tax it.
- adamchalmers 9y ago
  Specifically, he calls for a global tax on all capital, regardless of whether it's real estate, financial assets, homes, bonds, bank accounts. That way people can't get around it by shifting their assets overseas or into different forms. Obviously this would be difficult to implement, but it can be done by individual states, then countries, then by groups like the EU, etc.
  - WkndTriathlete 9y ago
    I think this is impossible to implement without a significant fraction of the G-8 or G-20 countries electing technocrats to office. Right now I'm envisioning Merkel and Macron asking themselves what on earth is happening in the rest of the West, especially in the wake of the election results in Italy over the past couple of days.